by Oluwatobi Soyombo

Whether you already have an online audience or anticipated online audience; I can predict what you want for your content. Among other things, you want your articles, blog posts to get the attention of your readers at all times. Here are 5 tips to help you draw the ears of your readers close to your mouth:

1. Offer Value: Why will anyone want to visit your blog if it is of no value to them? If at first they stumble on it, may be during a Google search, what will make them re-visit is the value they derive from visiting the first time. Treat each of your posts as if you will never have another chance to prove the worth of your blog; and that’s exactly the truth. What do you think  will be most helpful to your readers in the post you’re drafting. Offer Value! You can go ahead to break the remaining rules below once you obey this to the letter 🙂 Did I just say that?
2. Be conversational: Never write an article as if you are soliloquizing. Imagine how standing on the podium of a 1000 capacity hall and talking to yourself will look like. Sure, your audience will either dose off or bury their head in their hand-held devices. The same applies to your online content. Always ensure you use a tone that sounds more conversational. Articles that are not conversational are most times boring irrespective of the depth of the insight offered.
3. Be Emotional: If you can get into the emotions of your readers, you have won them to your side. This should reflect in your choice and command of words. My next point provides more help on this.
4. Use Great Images: As often said “a picture speaks a thousand times louder than words”. Let your pictures help you drive your point home in all your posts. Pictures also help activate the emotional sense of your readers. Images also help keep your readers busy thereby preventing boredom while reading.
5. Be Brief: Brevity rules the World Wide Web. A handful of online readers have short attention span. So, you want to ensure that you make your point clear in few words. Chances are that your readers are part of the many online readers who scroll down to see how long your write up is. These set of people will only scan through your page or even leave your site completely if they consider your post too long. This is one of the reasons why I love Seth Godin’s blog. He offers depths in few words.

Evolve!